Raiders unable to find net again, fall into 0-2 hole in GNC play

MEDFORD BOYS SOCCER

The Lakeland Thunderbirds pounced on two first-half scoring opportunities Thursday night and remained unbeaten on the young soccer season with a 2-0 win, while the Medford Raiders were left knowing they have work to do following a third straight defeat on their home field.

Medford started the season with high hopes, but things didn’t go according to plan in the first week of Great Northern Conference play with shutout home losses to Rhinelander and Lakeland and a 2-3-1 overall record.

“It’s an unfamiliar territory,” head coach Nate Bilodeau said. “We’ve never been in a ‘losing games’ situation. Last year we lost when we had half the team out with COVID quarantines. Other than that, we won most of our games. It’s an unfamiliar territory and how they react and respond to situations like this is going to only improve their morale and their confidence going forward into the rest of the season.”

Bilodeau felt Thursday’s performance was better than the team’s effort two days earlier in a 1-0 loss to Rhinelander. The team just has had scoring droughts in the first two weeks with the current one including just one goal scored in losses to three good teams –– Wisconsin Rapids, Rhinelander and Lakeland.

“At the end of the day, it was hard for me to be mad or disappointed when we played so well,” Bilodeau said. “All that being said, it was still disappointing that we can’t find the back of the net. That’s how you win games. We’re going to look at what we can do to create more scoring chances, maybe move some guys around. Maybe now our mindset is too defensive. Maybe we need to be more offensively minded. We’re still outpossessing each team we play. We’re in control of the match. We just need to find ways to score in the attacking third.”

Medford didn’t miss by much on a couple of early chances Thursday. Gage Neubauer’s shot just missed the upper left corner at 15:50 and Zach Rudolph’s long try to put one inside the right post went just wide at 23:45.

At 24:56, a Lakeland corner kick from the right corner was centered to Chandler Savel, who fought off the defense to control and fire a shot that got inside the left post.

Rudolph had another near miss at 30:55 nearly heading in what would have been a pretty assist from Quinton Tlusty. Just before halftime at 38:16, Lakeland’s Bo Peterson converted on another chance where he got just enough contact in a battle for the ball and punched it inside the right post.

“There’s a lot of momentum in soccer one way or the other,” Bilodeau said. “When you get scored on, that momentum shift can really impact the whole team and vice versa, if we get up a goal, we’re going to keep that momentum going and keep the hammer down. We just have to find ways to score and capitalize on the scoring opportunities and I think we’re going to be fine.”

In the second half, Lakeland took a defensive approach and broke up several passes and pushes by the Raiders that seemed to have scoring potential.

With the win, the T-Birds improved to 5-0-1 overall and have won five straight matches since an opening 3-3 tie with Three Lakes-Phelps. Lakeland and Rhinelander have both started out 2-0 in league play, while Northland Pines and Mosinee are both 1-1.

Medford hosts Mosinee tonight, Thursday, at 7 p.m. in an important contest to stay within shouting distance of the T-Birds and Hodags, who play each other tonight in Rhinelander.

MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Medford hosts Antigo Tuesday, before the schedule shifts to being more roadheavy starting with a trip to Northland Pines Sept. 16 and a 4:30 p.m. kickoff.

“We have talented, talented players that are just getting really frustrated,” Bilodeau said. “I get it. I understand, but what they don’t understand is that we’re actually playing really well and we’re playing at a very high level. Possession is something that’s one of the hardest things to coach because it’s such a high level of the game. To teach patience and to teach control and not turning the ball over takes a lot of discipline and we’re doing that. We’re doing the right things. We just need to convert that possession into shots and scoring opportunities.”